rip van winkle

1. 1.

   a person oblivious to social changes

   Broadertraditionalist
2. 2.

   a person who sleeps a lot

   Broadersleeper
3. 3.

   the title character in a story by Washington Irving about a man who sleeps for 20 years and doesn't recognize the world when he wakens

   Broaderfictional character

Questions about rip van winkle

What does rip van winkle mean?

rip van winkle means "a person oblivious to social changes". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is rip van winkle a common word?

rip van winkle is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.